Microsoft Lets Users 'Rent' Office

By

Shira Ovide

Updated Jan. 29, 2013 7:38 p.m. ET

Microsoft Corp. is about to find out whether people will buy the company's software the same way they pay for cable television.

The company on Tuesday started offering consumers a new version of Office—the widely used bundle of personal-computer applications—that for the first time arrives along with a version that can be "rented" for a monthly fee, similar to how people subscribe to cable or to Netflix Inc.'s movie...